Inside the Bruins: Time for Sturm to stir up Game 6 magic

Monday

For this resurrected and/or newly created generation of fans, the seminal moment when the Bruins grabbed them by both shoulders and shook real hard was Game 6.

For this resurrected and/or newly created generation of fans, the seminal moment when the Bruins grabbed them by both shoulders and shook real hard was Game 6.

On April 19, 2008, Marco Sturm capped a brilliant back-and-forth drama between the Bruins and the Canadiens at TD Garden, scoring the winning goal late in the third period for a 5-4 victory. Not only did Sturm's strike give Boston another day to play hockey, but an indelible memory that became a launching pad for a Big, Bad revival in Boston.

The German winger's scowl upon scoring that goal became his signature. Fans imitated it regularly, calling it "goal face."

The aftershocks were also substantial, especially given the irony of their 5-0 Game 7 loss two nights later up in Montreal. The very next morning after that deflating ouster, the Bruins set a one-day record for new season-ticket sales. Making new fans, resuscitating old ones and even inspiring a cease fire with the city's three-sport media, it was the indisputable sign the franchise had finally turned the corner.

Game was back on, and Sturm was a major player. He needs to be again.

The storylines coming into Game 6 between the Bruins and the Buffalo Sabres tonight at TD Garden (7, NESN, 98.5) will be centered around Marc Savard and Thomas Vanek, the teams' respective offensive leaders who have both been absent with injuries. It's not likely that either could make a difference for his team at this point, but Sturm could.

At season's start, it was hoped he could switch seamlessly from left to right wing and fill the hole left by Phil Kessel's trade to Toronto. Marc Savard and Milan Lucic were magical with Kessel in 2008-09, while Sturm's season was cut short after 19 games by season-ending ACL surgery.

It sounded so nice and neat. Just put the left-handed block in the right-handed hole, leave everything else the same and we won't miss a beat. Will we?

They missed a lot of beats, and for a lot of reasons.

Sturm didn't work out with Savard and Lucic as planned, and subsequent injuries to his would-be linemates beheaded the Boston offense. Shuffling around from line to line, Sturm would become Boston's only 20-goal scorer.

Though he led the team in regular-season goals, he's done nothing in the playoffs.

No Bruin in the postseason has more shots on goal (11) but hasn't scored. Daniel Paille and Blake Wheeler share Sturm's dubious distinction, but one has never been a goal scorer and the other is an NHL sophomore.

Sturm's been skating on a line with a talented set-up man in David Krejci (1-1-2 in five games) and has had his chances, but his five pointless playoff games have looked too much like Glen Murray's seven-game, career-ending drought in 2008. Excruciating effort, shaky confidence, zeroes across the board.

Indications are he'll try tonight with his former center, Patrice Bergeron. Either way, at age 31 Sturm still has his speed and time to make a difference, if not another long-lasting memory.

Lindy Ruff's futile attempt to legislate Zdeno Chara out of this series may have infuriated Boston loyalists, but Paul Gaustad's slash on the 6-foot-9 towering inferno in the final seconds of Game 5 only got the reaction hoped for, not the outcome.

The failed strategy to get Chara suspended via the instigator penalty doesn't hold a candle to the 2006 conference final, when Ruff went off on the Carolina Hurricanes on what was thought to be premature champagne in the locker room.

Canes coach Peter Laviolette, mum on the matter until the series was finished, explained in a show-and-tell after winning Game 7 that it was a bottle of Napa Valley wine named "Relentless" and signed by six-year-old Julia Rowe, his Raleigh neighbor who was terminally ill with leukemia. Money raised from sale of the wine was going to the Leukemia Lymphoma Society of Eastern N.C. in her name. (Rowe would have been 10 on Saturday.)

Ruff obviously didn't know the story behind the story, but in the heat of battle, the NHL's longest-tenured coach proves again and again how willing he is to get egg on his face to help the Sabres.

Mick Colageo covers hockey for

The Standard-Times. Contact him at mcolageo@s-t.com and visit SouthCoastToday.com/rinkrap

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